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THE HEREDITARY FRIENDSHIP 
OF THE CINCINNATI 



Address delivered at the Banquet given by the North Carolina 

Society of the Cincinnati to the General Society of the 

Cincinnati at Asheville. North Carolina, 

May 10. 1917 



By 



Charles Beatty Alexander, ll.d., utt.D. 

ail hereditary member of and delegate from 
The State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania 



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This is not a thesis to be proved in this assemblage of 
brothers — snch a procedure would be, indeed, a "useless 
and ridiculous excess;" for the spirit of our gathering 
exemplifies such a friendship. So my efforts must be de- 
voted to a retrospective view of a traditional friendsliip, 
consecrated by the generous hearts of our founders, em- 
bodied in our Institution, and held indissolubly as a 
precious heritage in kindred hearts, which have branched 
in the mighty space of our great land, but whose fibres 
stretch back to the common root of our country. And 
what more auspicious occasion for such contemplation 
could be imagined than this gathering, assembled at the 
behest of the friendship and generous hospitality of our 
brothers of the "Old North State," a state whose evidence 
of earliest devotion to the very cause of our l)eing is so 
proudly emblazoned on the beautiful flag of the "Land 
of the Long Leaf Pine?" To them and to the delegates 
of the various State Societies, our delegation extends the 
greetings of the Pennsylvania State Society of the 
Cincinnati. 

Your presence inevitably brings to mind the early 
association of the founders of the Society ; for we recall 
that the strife of those years was shared by men of all 
sections of the country, in a spirit of friendship and co- 
operation. The partial and sporadic associations of 
earlier colonial wars gave place to a union of all Ameri- 
cans; and the Continental Congress which assembled in 



Philadelphia in tlie autnmii of ITT-t was the beginning 
of a great nation. The spirit of the country was united. 
Patrick Henry of Virginia proposed to the Continental 
Congress that all state lines should be obliterated for the 
fusion of a nation ; committees of correspondence sprang 
into being to foster a homogeneous ])olicy. We recall 
that Edenton, the old capital of North Carolina, vied with 
Boston in treating the British to a "tea party" — not so 
extensive an entertainment as that of her sister of far 
Massachusetts, but a very successful party. 

And the greatest factor in our nationality — the very 
means of its being, when \^'ar came — was our army. I 
refer especially to the troops of the Continental Line, 
who were the vigorous embodiment of our ideals. Years 
of discipline, hardship and battle made this army the 
peer of any in the world. One recalls the enthusiastic 
words of Lafayette, the gallant Black Musketeer of King 
Louis, as he led south a force of these Continentals for 
the Virginia campaign of 1781 : "They are the best troops 
that ever took the field ; my confidence in them is un- 
bounded; they are far superior to any British troops, and 
none will ever venture to meet them in eipial numbers.'' 
In this army, there met and associated and loved, with a 
friendship that privation and danger rendered indissol- 
uble, men of all the thirteen states. It was General 
Washington of Virginia who hurried from the Congress 
at Philadelphia to take command of the American army 
before Boston; it was General Natliaiiac^l (Jreenc (jf Kluxh' 
Island who, after the failure of (leneral Gates, was sent 
south to save that section, and whose skill and modera- 
tion so endeared him to the people that he fell captive to 

2 



their affection and lived and died in Georgia. It was at 
Camden, South 'Carolina, where, by the way, my own 
propositus served, Major Willian Ferguson of Pennsyl- 
vania, after the untrained and misled militia had fled 
the field, that the Delaware regiment stood firm and 
fought until almost annihilated; and the Maryland 
regulars broke through the British left in a desperate 
bayonet charge, wheeled upon its center and fought alone 
until enveloped by the whole British army. Officers 
of North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Khode 
Island, Virginia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Con- 
necticut and New York, froze and starved, with a patriot- 
ism Avhich demanded mute suffering with nothing of 
the glory of battle, in the cantonments at Valley Forge 
during those dark days of the winter of 1777 and 1778. 
General "Mad Anthony" Wayne of Pennsylvania, whose 
descendant and heir is one of our Pennsylvania delega- 
tion, and his fighting Continentals aided Lafayette in 
pressing back Cornwallis to his last stand in Virginia; 
and Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton of New 
York led the American force, charging with unloaded 
rifles, over the redoubts at Yorktown. Turning, at ran- 
dom, the pages of Heitman's Historical Register of Offi- 
cers of the Continental Army, one finds such records as 
these: Brigadier-General Francis Nash of North Caro- 
lina, died October 7, 1777, of wounds received at German- 
town; Captain John Ehodes of Delaware, taken prisoner 
at Camden; Captain Ignatius Few of Georgia, taken 
prisoner at Amelia Island ; Lieutenant John Mansfield of 
Connecticut, wounded at Yorktown. "And what shall I 
more say? for the time would fail me to tell of" Lieuten- 

3 



ant-Colonel John Laurens of South Carolina, wounded at 
Germantown, and at Monmouth ; Lieutenant Lawrence 
Manning of Pennsylvania, wounded at Eutaw Springs; 
Lieutenant Benajah Osmon of New Jersey, taken pris- 
oner at Charleston ; Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager How- 
ard of Maryland, received a medal for conduct at the bat- 
tle of Cowpens, wounded at Eutaw Springs; Captain 
David Kirkpatrick of New York, wounded at Yorktown ; 
Captain Edmund Munro of Massachusetts, killed at Mon- 
mouth ; Colonel Alexander Scammell of New Hampshire, 
mortally Avounded at Yorktown ; Captain Kichard Clough 
Anderson of Virginia, wounded at Trenton, wounded 
at Savannah, taken prisoner at Charleston; Captain 
Stephen Olney of Eh ode Island, wounded at Yorktown. 
"Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought right- 
eousness. * * * Quenched the violence of fire, es- 
caped the edge of the sword, * * * waxed valiant 
in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." 

Thus the records show us that men of one section of 
the country were continually serving in other sections, 
and indicate how great was the opportunity for the com- 
mingling and association of men of all the thirteen orig- 
inal states. 

The surrender of Cornwallis and the cessation of for- 
mal hostilities ushered in what John Fiske has so aptly 
termed "the critical period of American history." The 
removal of the unifying policies of a common war re- 
solved the American states, untried in peaceful concert, 
into a group of local units exultant in a new-found free- 
dom, and unmindful of the strength that comes only 
from union. The Congress was a nerveless government 

4 



whose power was that of recommendation, practically 
without authority, money or credit. 

At Newburgh, on the Hudson, was encamped the 
American army. Eight long years had elapsed since Lex- 
ington, and now, with the uniting stress of conflict re- 
moved, the officers and men faced disbandment and dis- 
persal to distant homes and the uncertain prospects of 
the unfamiliar tasks of peace. The officers, to whom had 
been entrusted the prosecution of war and the achieve- 
ment of Liberty, viewed with dismay the gloomy pros- 
pects which confronted them. With peace, their occupa- 
tion and prestige and value were diminished. Many of 
them faced impoverishment and actual want. 

Among the soldiers there was widespread dissatis- 
faction and turbulence, caused by the apparent ingrati- 
tude of the republic and the seeming niggardness of the 
government. 

Washington, by his tact and firmness, calmed the agi- 
tation; and the officers supported his policy, resolved to 
show their disapproval of doctrines of military supre- 
macy and their determination to support their country's 
government, first and last, and to do and to bear, in war 
and in peace. 

They might expect time to remedy personal want ; but 
how would time and separation affect the friendship which 
was so dear to their hearts? Comrades, united by long- 
shared dangers and suffering and hardship, were about to 
part, and they shrank from the prospect before them and 
longed for "some link which would still unite them 
together at periodical intervals, when they could revive 

5 



around the social board the scenes of their past privations 
and * * * triumphs." To General Knox, ever famed 
for generous impulses, is given the credit for devising a 
plan "by which a hope was entertained that their long- 
cherished friendship and social intercourse might be per- 
petuated, and that at future periods they might annually 
communicate, and revive a recollection of the bond by 
which they were connected." 

These foregoing circumstances were considered : the 
possible material needs of brother officers and their fam- 
ilies; the wish to give their best support to the govern- 
ment of the nation they had created ; and the desire to per- 
petuate the friendship which had so long existed between 
them. So it was upon the three main pillars of Charity, 
and Patriotism, and Friendship that was rested the So- 
ciety of the Cincinnati, which came into being at the can- 
tonment on the Hudson, on May 13, 1783. The name sug- 
gested their patriotism, in happily connoting the rugged 
virtues of the old Koman who was above all a citizen, but 
also the most thorough-going soldier at the call of his 
country; and the tenets of their patriotic faith were ex- 
pressed in the Institution, For charitable purposes, an 
inalienable fund was created. As for the all-pervading 
motive of friendship, we have the text of the Institution ; 
and we will recall also the words of the greatest of the 
founders. Washington wrote in that same year, to the 
Count De Rochambeau : "The officers of the American 
army, in order to perpetuate that mutual friendship which 
they contracted in the hour of common danger and dis- 
tress * * * have united together in a society of friends 
under the name of Cincinnati * * *." And Major- 

6 



General Baron von Steuben, that doughty staff officer of 
Frederick the Great, president of the convention which 
established the Society, stated, in July 1783, "the chief 
motive * * * is to perpetuate that virtuous affection 
which in so exemplary a manner existed among them while 
in arms for the defence of their country." 

And because they wished for their friendship— as in- 
deed we all wish for everything that we love— a continu- 
ous and perpetual existence, they made the order heredi- 
tary, "to endure as long as they shall endure, or any of 
their eldest male posterity; and, in failure thereof, the 
collateral branches who may be judged worthy of becom- 
ing its supporters and members." Thus was insured the 
motto, "Esto perpetua." 

An admirable plan for continued intercourse, in those 
days of infrequent communication and difficult travel, was 
devised. Since a large part of the army had disbanded 
before the Institution was formed, active steps were taken 
for the organization of State Societies. These efforts met 
with universal approval and before the end of 1783 So- 
cieties had been organized in all the thirteen states. We 
all know the provision which fittingly set aside the anni- 
versary of American independence as the day for the 
assembling of the local Societies ; the provision for inter- 
communication among the states; and that for the Tri- 
ennial Meeting of the General Society. 

Almost immediately the Society was assailed with a 
force and a bitterness, which seem to us, secure in the 
established principles of our government, quite astound- 
ing. But democracy was then an experiment, fear gave 
substance to apprehensions, and it was many years be- 

7 



fore the bugbear of monarchical and aristocratic rule was 
laid away. Legislatures, members of Congress, orators 
and a host of writers, valiantly shedding ink in a mythical 
defence of their country, flew to arms. The hereditary 
principle was the chief objection. The idea of perpetu- 
ating the memory of an epoch, of "raising the glow of 
generous emulation in the breast of posterity, to supply 
the broken links in an endless chain of good fellowship," 
to pass the eagle "from father to son, according to the law 
of primogeniture", created a great furor of opposition 
among those who feared that the Society would undermine 
the republic, usurp the supreme power of the state and 
establish a powerful nobility. 

This opposition to the Society was the engrossing 
question of the first General Meeting, at Philadelphia, 
in May 1784. Delegates were present from all the 
thirteen states. Washington, President-General of 
the Society, lending his efforts and his influence 
to the establishing of a nation, felt grievously 
the responsibility for the decision of the Society. Har- 
mony throughout the countiy was imperative and pa- 
triotism seemed to dictate the sacrifice of personal senti- 
ments. Owing largely to his influence, an amended In- 
stitution was formed, which provided for the abolition 
of the hereditary feature and an alteration of other pro- 
visions which had met with opposition. A circular let- 
ter, announcing these changes and requesting their adop- 
tion, was sent to the various State Societies. In regard 
to hereditary succession, this circular letter recited: — 
"Having lived in the strictest habits of amity through 
the various stages of a war unparalleled in many of its 



circumstances; having seen the objects for which we con- 
tended happily attained; in the moment of triumph and 
separation, when we were about to act the last pleasing, 
melancholy scene in our military drama — pleasing, be- 
cause we were to leave our country possessed of inde- 
pendence and peace; melancholy, because we were to part, 
perhaps never to meet again ; — while every breast was 
penetrated with feelings which can be more easily con- 
ceived than described ; while every little act of tender- 
ness recurred fresh to the recollection, it was impos- 
sible not to wish our friendships should be continued ; it 
was extremely natural to desire that they might be per- 
petuated by our posterity to the remotest ages. With 
these impressions and with such sentiments, we can- 
didly confess we signed the Institution." But, at the 
apprehensions of many of their countrymen, they would 
not, they declared, "hesitate to relinquish everything 
but our personal friendships, of which we cannot be 
divested, and those acts of beneficence which it is our 
intention should flow from them." And the letter con- 
cluded by resting the Institution upon "these two great 
original pillars — Friendship and Charity." 

The altered Institution was never adopted by the 
State Societies, with w^hom rested the ultimate decision. 
As an indication of their attitude, I may cite the circular 
letter of the New Hampshire Society. This Society saw 
no force in the arguments of their fellow citizens who 
demanded so great a sacrifice; it preferred to abolish the 
Society altogether, rather than to recede partially from 
the original plan. The letter declared: "We instituted 
the Society, and considered the emblems of the Order as 

9 



the most endearing marks of that friendship which we 
wished might be held in gi'ateful remembrance by our- 
selves, and cherished among our children to the latest 
posterity." And they objected to surrendering their 
funds for charity to the disposition of the legislature to 
"be enjoyed, not by us or our descendants, but by others 
that we know nothing of, and between whom and us there 
never existed any ties of blood or friendship." "If the 
Society cannot exist as originally instituted, we shall ac- 
quiesce in the abolishing it altogether ; but as we became 
members by signing articles which we then and still sup- 
pose originated in virtuous friendship, we cannot con- 
ceive ourselves bound by articles we never subscribed." 
And at a later meeting this Society declared : — "That 
the abolition of hereditary succession, adopted by said 
general meeting, is so repugnant to the design of the In- 
stitution, and so destructive to the principles on which 
it was originallj' founded, that it ought not to be 
agreed to." 

The attitude of the New Hampshire Society was not 
an isolated one. After the impulsion of the first recom- 
mendations of the General Meeting, the New Jersey So- 
ciety expressed much the same sentiments. Time and 
again the General Meeting recommended that the State 
Societies should authorize delegates to make the changes 
deemed necessary, but such authority was never given. 
At length, in the General Meeting, the committee on the 
proposed alterations in the Institution reported : 

"From the silence which the State Societies have ob- 
served, after the pressing circular letters of the General 
Meeting, your committee are led to conclude, that they 

10 



do not accede to the proposed reform, — and yonr commit- 
tee conceive therefrom that they are authorized to report 
to the General Meeting. 

"That the institution of the Society of the Cincinnati, 
remains as it was originally proposed and adopted by the 
officers of the American army at their cantonments on 
the banks of the Hudson River, in 1783." 

This report was unanimously adopted. 

Thus was preserved, and bequeathed to their pos- 
terity — and to us — "The Hereditary Friendship of the 
Cincinnati." 

With the passing years the opposition to the Cincinnati 
grew less active and the members were suffered to spend 
the Fourth of July after their own fashion. These annual 
gatherings kept alive the spirit of '76, for here the veterans 
met and fraternized and fought their battles over again. 
They talked of Brandywine and Monmouth and Yorktown, 
and told the story of the many scars they bore. The con- 
viviality was long and joyous on those birthdays of the 
young nation. Descendants of the first members now con- 
stitute the thirteen original Societies and are the heirs of 
the friendship bequeathed by our fathers. 

No discussion of my subject could be adequate which 
failed to consider the friendship of our gallant and gener- 
ous allies whose assistance was decisive of the outcome of 
the American Eevolution. None of us but has felt a 
thrill of sympatliy and pride at the heroism of the 
French nation in this time of her agony and glory; 
and the remembrance of the old debt to her, grown dim 
perhaps, but not forgotten, has been revived in the hearts 
of all Americans. Particularly to the members of the 

11 



Cincinnati is this sympathy and friendship a thing of 
deepest attachment; for the cords of our hearts stretch 
back over the many years, and we cannot forget the time 
when the ancestors of these men of France were brothers- 
in-arms with ours, even as our countrymen are theirs 
to-day. 

It was the enthusiastic sympathy of the French peo- 
ple that was most potent in bringing that country to our 
aid. There was great advantage for her in neutrality at 
a time when her ancient enemy was wasting its strength 
upon an apparentlj^ crumbling empire. But French sym- 
pathy would not be repressed. Long before the Treaty 
of Alliance of 1778, men, money and equipment were 
given generously to America; and this treaty which 
marked the beginning of open and official aid instituted 
a policy which effected the triumph of the United States 
and the temporary ruin of France. Every American 
should read this treaty, showing, as Hamilton said, "the 
magnanimous policy of France,'' and the most generous in 
history on the part of a great nation dealing with a weak 
people. The prime minister of Spain called it a "glaring 
instance of Quixotism." Note that France stipulated 
for no advantage to herself and no reimbursement. She 
agreed to make no claim, whatever might be the outcome 
of the war — even if Canada were reconquered. 

Of the factors of French help, the one which holds least 
place in our gratitude, but which of itself was capable 
of her ruin, was her expenditure of treasure. The French 
monarchy was a regime of splendor and magnificence, 
but beneath the surface were the elements of destruction : 
a population exploited and oppressed; ruinous taxation; 

12 



and intolerable social conditions. We repaid her for 
loans and supplies about $11,000,000 ; but the actual cost 
in money to her is a matter not easily reckoned. Not 
only were fleets and armies sent to America but a great 
war was waged also in Europe, Africa and Asia, and our 
independence was achieved on the battle fields of the 
world. A probably fair estimate of her expenditure is 
about 1000,000,000, equivalent perhaps to two and a half 
billion at the present day, truly an enormous amount for 
a distressed country with a population of only 22,000,000. 
But what shall we say of her sons who helped? — for 
we can estimate their service in no tangible terms. We 
remember Beaumarchais who argued for prompt support 
to our cause, and who so ably managed the business of 
supplying our army with munitions of war; the Count 
De Rochambeau, commander of the French army; 
the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the Minister to the United 
States; the Count D'Estaing, the Count de Grasse, the 
Count de Barras, the Chevalier de Touches, admirals 
and commanders in the navy of France, to whom in 
its Institution the Society presented medals contain- 
ing the orders of the Society; Peter Charles L'Enfant, 
who came to us early and gave his efi&ciency and 
spilled his blood in our service, who was the author 
of the city plan which is increasingly the admira- 
tion of observers of our national capital, and to whose 
taste we owe the graceful emblem we are so proud 
to wear, — an emblem which happily symbolizes, in its 
blending of colors, the union of France and America. 
And there are a host of other names writ large on the 
page of our history. But above all we remember one 

13 



who is dear to all Americans and dearest to iis. We see 
in Lafayette the embodiment of the spirit and friendship 
of France. Loving us and the cause which had captured 
his generous heart, lie hurried, with those characteristic 
and endearing traits of youthful enthusiasm, impetuosity 
and courage, to offer his life to our service. He wrote 
on shipboard to his wife, "From love to me, become a 
good American; the welfare of America is closely bound 
up with the welfare of mankind." The driest chronicle 
of action w'ould tell of his transcendent sei'vdces; but if 
we needed any proof of his endearing qualities of heart 
and mind, we would find it with particular satisfaction 
in the fatherly affection with which Washington regarded 
him, and the idolizing love and loyalty Avhich the young 
French aristocrat felt for that noblest of Americans. 

It will be remembered that a most important object 
in the formation of the Society was to confer appropriate 
honors upon their noble allies, the officers of the French 
army and navy. No sooner was the Society established 
than word of it was transmitted to the higher French 
officers and they were informed that the Society did 
itself the honor to consider tliem as members. 

The French officers received the honor with the great- 
est appreciation and pleasure. From Lafayette, to whom 
Washington had communicated the information, came the 
w^armest and most appreciative of letters. The officers 
w'ho had returned from their triumph in America were 
flattered with the smiles of an admiring court, and all 
wanted to wear the distinguishing badge of their gal- 
lantry. Brevet Major L'Enfant wrote to Major-General 
Baron von Steuben on December 25th, 1783: "Here in 

14 



France they are more anxious to obtain the Order of the 
Cincinnati than to be decorated with the Cross of St. 
Louis." 

Voluntarily, about |25,000 was subscribed by the 
officers of the French army and navy for the Society in 
America, but this, from a sense of delicacy, was declined. 

Versailles, the gay capital of France, then exhibited all 
that vividness and grandeur, that pomp and martial en- 
thusiasm, that deference to form and rank and ceremony 
which marked its closing days. A fading halo of glory 
and might and romance was still about the throne of the 
Bourbons. To the foot of this throne came Lafayette and 
sought permission to wear, along with his cross of the 
Order of St. Louis, the eagle of the Cincinnati. The 
Golden Fleece was the only foreign order permitted to 
be worn in the royal service; but the French king gave 
his gracious permission for our members to appear at 
court with the new decoration. 

The claims of the Society upon their affections were 
not forgetten by the members who survived the terrible 
era of the French Revolution, and by their descendants. 
When Lafayette came back to visit us, in 1824 and 
1825, his brothers of the Society embraced him with tears 
in their eyes and gave him the warmest greetings of an 
adoring nation. The Cincinnati of New York selected 
his birthday for entertaining him in a manner surpassing 
all their previous festivals; and throughout the country, 
his former brothers-in-arms came long and painful jour- 
neys at the call of the old friendship. And this fraternal 
spirit of the Cincinnati lived on, to bring to our centen- 
nial celebration of Yorktown descendants of Rocham- 
beau and others, and the Marquis Gaston de Lafayette, 

15 



grandson of the GeneraFs only son, George Washington 
de Lafayette. 

It gave all our members fresh heart when they read 
last month that Comte Gilbert de Lafayette, great-great- 
grandson of our former member, had applied to our War 
Department for permission to join our army. It was a 
happy thought for our people to celebrate the 26th of 
April as "France Day" as a mark of welcome to the dis- 
tinguished delegation arriving from our sister republic; 
that day being also the anniversary of the sailing of 
General Lafayette from Bordeaux to offer us his all in 
defense of our rights. We have joined in that enthusiasm 
with which this delegation was received on its arrival in 
this country. And to-mof row, at the very birthplace of the 
Society, one of our eminent members, Mr. Justice Francis 
Key Pendleton, accompanied by members from the va- 
rious State Societies, will announce to Marshal Joffre 
his election as an honorary member of the Society and 
present him with our badge of membership. 

We have watched with pride and emotion the exploits 
of noble Frenchmen in the armies of France, the descend- 
ants of our original members, and we have mourned the 
death of one of them, who was admitted to membership 
in 1902, and who was killed in action August 20, 1914, 
Lieutenant Albert Ferdinand Joseph Marie de Saint 
Sauveur-Bougainville, of the 141st Regiment of Infantry, 
French Army, a great-great-grandson of Vice Admiral 
Antoine Count De Bougainville, F, R. S., French Navy. 

We have been glad, these last few years, of what our 
country has given France, and the members of this Society 
have, in proportion of their means, done more than their 
share for the relief of the French sufferers. 

16 



We can think with pride of onr superb hospital units, 
French Heroes Fund, Le Bien-fitre du Blesse, The Father- 
less of France, American Ambulance Hospital, The 
Secours National Fund; our efficient ambulance service; 
our flying squadron, now officially known as the Lafayette 
Escadrille, which, on the declaration of war, raised and 
will hereafter fight under our national colors, in Ameri- 
can uniform ; and the devotion of Americans on the firing 
line who heeded the call of the ancient friendship. 

In this connection, I may be allowed to quote the words 
of Alan Seeger, the young American poet who died for 
France last year, in an "Ode in Memory of the American 
Volunteers Fallen for France," to have been read — if he 
had lived — before the statue of Lafayette and Washington 
in Paris, on Decoration Day, May 30, 1916 : 

"Ay, it is fitting on this holiday, 

Commemorative of our soldier dead. 

When — with sweet flowers of our New England May 

Hiding the lichened stones by fifty years made gray — 

Their graves in every town are garlanded. 

That pious tribute should be given too 

To our intrepid few 

Obscurely fallen here beyond the seas. 

Those to preserve their country's greatness died; 

But by the death of these 

Something that we can look upon with pride 

Has been achieved, nor wholly unreplied 

Can sneerers triumph in the charge they make 

That from a war where Freedom was at stake 

America withheld and, daunted, stood aside. 

***** 

* * * Some there were 

Who, not unmindful of the antique debt, 

Came back the generous path of Lafayette; 

And when of a most formidable foe 

She checked each onset, arduous to stem — 

Foiled and frustrated them — 

On those red fields where blow with furious blow 

Was countered, whether the gigantic fray 

Rolled by the Meuse or at the Bois Sabot, 

17 



Accents of ours were in the fierce melee; 

And on those furthest rims of hallowed ground 

Where the forlorn, the gallant charge expires, 

When the slain bugler has long ceased to sound, 

And on the tangled wires 

The last wild rally staggers, crumbles, stops, 

Withered beneath the shrapnel's iron showers: — 

ISTow Heaven be thanked, we gave a few brave drops; 

Now Heaven be thanked, a few brave drops were ours." 

And now that we are to stand shoulder to shoulder in 
the same war with the descendants of our former brothers- 
in-arms, when we are searching our hearts for our utmost 
duty, let us be mindful of the principles of our Institu- 
tion, to give, as a Society, "an incessant attention to 
preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liberties of 
human nature for which they * * * fought and bled, 
and, without which, the high rank of a rational being is a 
curse instead of a blessing." Who can say how far-reach- 
ing the influence of the Society, with its historic past and 
its distinguished roll of members, will be in support of 
our Government in this time of war. In the language of 
Emerson at Concord: "Though the cannon volleys have 
a sound of funeral echoes, they can yet hear through them 
the benedictions of their country and mankind." Let us 
now regain our ancient heritage, in the "union sacree" 
of France and her friends, thus consecrated in French 
affection. Then, indeed, we shall have proved true, in 
full measure, to "The Hereditary Friendship of the 
Cincinnati." 



18 




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The Erenlng Posr Job Frlnllng Office, Inc. 
156 Fulton St.. N. T. 



